Have you ever dreamed of a society without Laws? Do you think it will be a heaven, or a hell? The authors of Lord of the Flies and A Matter of Balance created two stories where the characters are removed from civilized society, and both endings are ill-fated. In those two stories, some characters misbehaved without the presence of order, but that was not caused by the shift from humanity to savagery nor the inherent evil nature of human beings. The true reason instead was that people could make choices that they did not have to be responsible for.
To begin with, not everyone misbehaved when they were removed from the civilized society. For example, In Lord of the Flies, Piggy and Ralph remained rational and civilized from the beginning to the end. They reiterated the importance of retaining the signal fire and building up shelters, which were symbols of order and rescue. Simon and Samneric, furthermore, were always helpful and good-hearted. By contrast, Jack acted like a savage chief by hunting all day long and using fear and threats to command other boys. Roger acted like a cruel beast by killing Piggy with a rock. Evidence can be found in A Matter of Balance as well. Being in the same lonesome place, various kinds of people acted in various ways. The two bikers chose to hunt for the narrator instead of quietly enjoying the scenery, while the narrator wanted nothing more than tranquility. He did not intend to trouble or hurt the bikers. To conclude, different people acted differently when they were removed from civilized society.
Then you may ask: “Why would that happen? What caused those characters to act in different ways?” The answer is that whether or not those characters misbehaved partly depended on their nature, but a more significant factor was how they chose to deal with the situation. To illustrate, in Lord of the Flies, The nature of piggy was humane and pure, while that of Ralph was mixed with social sophistication and therefore less pure. But it was still humane at least. Their good nature might explain their civilized behavior, but it was not enough to explain Jack’s. Could it be said that Jack acted like a savage chief because he had an evil heart? The answer is obvious—no. The nature of Jack was very similar to that of Ralph. In the beginning, Jack had a good time with Ralph, respected Ralph and the order he gave. Those were signs of humanity and social civilization. The reason that he became a completely different person in the end was because he chose to. He got addicted to the force, and his mind was overwhelmed. That was not a mistake made by his nature. However, nature sometimes did make mistakes. The typical example was Roger. His evil heart made him act like a beast, but that was only an exception. Moreover, in A Matter of Balance, the narrator had witnessed the murder of his wife, and he himself was bullied in grade two. Those two factors combined together caused him to develop psychological problems (mistrust and fear towards other people), but his nature was still humane. It could be seen from his early actions towards the two bikers—he calmly talked to them, hoping they would back off. He did not decide to trap them and kill them at first. In the end, he made that decision because he chose to. He carefully analyzed all the possible solutions to the problem, and selected the best one in his mind. To sum up, the motor for most savage actions (an exception did occur) was not the evil nature of human beings. It was the choice made by them instead.
After that, you may be wondering: “Why could they make that kind of choices?” The answer is that they no longer had to take responsibilities for their own actions when order was absent. For instance, murder may lead you to death penalty in the civilized society, but what could it lead you to in a No Man’s Land? Nothing. That could explain why Roger dared to kill Piggy like a pig in Lord of the Flies. Similarly, Jack knew that he would not be punished by adults even if he acted like a savage chief. The same thing happened in A Matter of Balance. The bikers knew that no one would stop them from chasing the narrator, and also the narrator was aware of that no one would have noticed he had left the two bikers to death. In short, the main cause for misbehavior when order was absent was that people no longer had to be responsible for their own actions.
In conclusion, not everyone misbehaved within disorder, and it was the possibility to run away from consequences that prompted individuals to make evil choices when a civilized society was absent, not the evil side of human nature nor the vanishment of humanity. The authors of those two stories have taught us a valuable lesson.
